8 Reasons Senate Farm Bill Is Better Than House Bill

It's not hard to see the differences between the terrible, partisan House farm bill and the bipartisan Senate farm bill.

Here are eight ways the Senate version—which passed in the Senate last week—is better than the House bill:

1. Thanks to Sen. Chuck Grassley, the Senate bill finally denies farm subsidies to city slickers. By contrast, the House bill would create new loopholes that allow even more city dwellers to get farm payments.

2. The Senate bill also tightens a means test that denies farm subsidies to billionaires. The House bill would make billionaires like Charles Schwab and Paul Allen eligible for farm payments again.

3. The Senate bill protects anti-hunger assistance programs. Meanwhile, the House bill would take food off the tables of 2 million people, including children and the elderly.

Sixteen-year-old climate action leader Greta Thunberg stood alongside European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker Thursday in Brussels as he indicated—after weeks of climate strikes around the world inspired by the Swedish teenager—that the European Union has heard the demands of young people and pledged more than $1 trillion over the next seven years to address the crisis of a rapidly heating planet.

In the financial period beginning in 2021, Juncker said, the EU will devote a quarter of its budget to solving the crisis.

A new study reveals the health risks posed by the making, use and disposal of plastics. Jeffrey Phelps / Getty Images

With eight million metric tons of plastic entering the world's oceans every year, there is growing concern about the proliferation of plastics in the environment. Despite this, surprisingly little is known about the full impact of plastic pollution on human health.

But a first-of-its-kind study released Tuesday sets out to change that. The study, Plastic & Health: The Hidden Costs of a Plastic Planet, is especially groundbreaking because it looks at the health impacts of every stage in the life cycle of plastics, from the extraction of the fossil fuels that make them to their permanence in the environment. While previous studies have focused on particular products, manufacturing processes or moments in the creation and use of plastics, this study shows that plastics pose serious health risks at every stage in their production, use and disposal.